David Hicks
Encyclopedia
David Matthew Hicks is an Australia
n who was convicted by the United States of America Guantanamo
Military Commission under the Military Commissions Act of 2006
, on charges of providing material support for terrorism
. Hicks was detained by the United States in Guantanamo Bay detention camp from 2001 until 2007 following earlier para-military and terrorism training at Al Farouq training camp
in Afghanistan during 2001.
Hicks became one of the first people charged and subsequently convicted under the United States' Military Commissions Act of 2006. There was widespread Australian and international criticism and political controversy over Hicks' treatment, the evidence tendered against him, his trial outcome, and the newly created legal system under which he was prosecuted.
Earlier, during 1999, Hicks converted to Islam
, took the name Muhammed Dawood, and was later reported as publicly denounced due to Hicks' lack of religious observance. Hicks was captured in Afghanistan in December 2001 by the Afghan Northern Alliance
and sold for a US$1,000 bounty to the United States military. He was transported to Guantanamo Bay where he was designated an enemy combatant
, during which time he alleges he was tortured. Charges were first filed against Hicks in 2004 under a military commission system newly created by Presidential Order. Those proceedings failed in 2006 when the Supreme Court of the United States ruled, in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
, that the military commission system
was unconstitutional. The military commission system was re-established by an act of the United States Congress
. Revised charges were filed against Hicks in February 2007 before a new commission under the new act. The following month, in accordance with a pre-trial agreement struck with convening authority
Judge Susan J. Crawford, Hicks entered an Alford plea
to a single newly codified charge of providing material support for terrorism. Hicks's legal team attributed his acceptance of the plea bargain to his "desperation for release from Guantanamo".
In April 2007, Hicks was returned to Australia to serve the remaining nine months of a suspended seven-year sentence. During this period, Hicks was precluded from all media contact and there was criticism for delaying his release until after the 2007 Australian election. Former Pentagon
chief prosecutor
Colonel Morris Davis
later alleged political interference in the case by the Bush administration in the United States and the Howard
government in Australia. He also said that Hicks should not have been prosecuted. Hicks served his term in Adelaide's Yatala Labour Prison
and was released under a control order on 29 December 2007. The control order expired in December 2008 and, since married, Hicks now lives in Sydney.
, South Australia
to Terry Hicks
and Susan Hicks. His parents separated when he was ten years old and his father later remarried. He has a half sister.
Described by his father as "a typical boy who couldn't settle down" and by his former school principal as one of "the most troublesome kids", Hicks reportedly experimented with alcohol and drugs as a teenager and was expelled from Smithfield Plains High school in 1990 at age 14. Before turning 15, Hicks was given dispensation by his father from attending school. His former partner has claimed that Hicks then turned to criminal activity, including vehicle theft, allegedly in order to feed himself, although no adult criminal record was ever recorded for this.
Hicks moved between various jobs, including factory work and working at a series of outback cattle stations
in the Northern Territory
, Queensland
and South Australia
. He met Jodie Sparrow in Adelaide when he was 17 years old. Sparrow already had one child and Hicks raised her daughter as his own. Hicks and Sparrow had two children, daughter Bonnie and son Terry, before separating in 1996. He eventually lost contact with his two young children after Sparrow had an affair with another man. After their separation, Hicks moved to Japan
to become a horse trainer.
Hicks began studying the Koran during his time in the Northern Territory. In 1999, Hicks travelled to Albania
, joining the Kosovo Liberation Army
(KLA), a militant organisation of ethnic Albanians
fighting against Serbia
n forces in the Kosovo War
, for two months. Hicks states in his autobiography that during this period he did not engage in any actual hostilities nor enter Kosovan territory. Upon return to Australia, Hicks applied to join the Australian Army
but was rejected due to his low level of formal education.
Hicks then converted to Islam
, and began studying Wahhabism
at a mosque
in Gilles Plains
, a suburb north of Adelaide. The president of the Islamic society of South Australia, Wali Hanifi, described Hicks as having "some interest in military things", and that "after personal experience and research, that Islam was the answer". In 2010, Hicks explained his motivation to convert to Islam:
He renounced his faith during the earlier years of his detention at Guantánamo. In June 2006, Moazzam Begg
, a British man who had also been held at Guantanamo Bay but was released in 2005, claimed in his book Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim's Journey to Guantanamo and Back that Hicks had abandoned his Islamic beliefs, and had been denounced by a fellow inmate, Uthman al-Harbi, for his lack of observance. This has also been confirmed by his military lawyer, Major Michael Mori
. However, he declined to say why Hicks was no longer a Muslim, saying it was a personal issue for David Hicks.
to study Islam and began training with Lashkar-e-Taiba
in early 2000. In the U.S. Military Commission charges presented in 2004, the U.S. accused Hicks of training at the Mosqua Aqsa camp in Pakistan
, after which he "travelled to a border region between Pakistan-controlled Kashmir
and Indian-controlled Kashmir, where he engaged in hostile action against Indian forces."
In a March 2000 letter to his family, Hicks wrote:
In another letter on 10 August 2000, Hicks wrote from Kashmir
claiming to have been a guest of Pakistan's army for two weeks at the front in the "controlled war" with India
:
During this period, Hicks kept a notebook to document his training in weapon use, explosives, and military tactics, in which he wrote that guerilla warfare involved "sacrifice for Allah". He took extensive notes on, and made sketches of, various weaponry mechanisms and attack strategies (including Heckler & Koch
submachine guns, the M16
assault rifle, RPG-7 grenade launcher, anti-tank rockets, and VIP security infiltration). Letters to his family detailed his training:
In January 2001, Hicks was provided with funding and an introductory letter from Lashkar-e-Taiba. He then travelled to Afghanistan to attend training. According to Hicks' autobiography Guantanamo: My Journey
, he was unfamiliar with the name Al-Qaeda until after his detainment in Guantanamo Bay.
, a high ranking al Qaeda member. He turned over his passport and indicated to them that he would use the alias "Muhammad Dawood".
Hicks allegedly "attended a number of al-Qaeda training courses at various camps around Afghanistan
, learning guerilla warfare, weapons training, including landmines, kidnapping techniques and assassination methods." He also allegedly participated "in an advanced course on surveillance, in which he conducted surveillance of the US and British embassies in Kabul
, Afghanistan." However, both embassies had closed in 1989 and did not re-open until after Hick's arrest. Hicks strongly denies that he had any involvement with al-Qaeda, nor that he knew the camp had any al-Qaeda links. According to Hicks, he had not even heard of the organisation until he was taken to Cuba.
On one occasion when al-Qaeda
founder Osama bin Laden
visited an Afghan camp, the US Defense Department alleges Hicks questioned bin Laden about the lack of English in training material and subsequently "began to translate the training camp materials from Arabic to English". Hicks denies this and also denies having had the prerequisite language proficiency, a claim supported by Major Michael Mori
and fellow detainee Moazzam Begg
who stated that Hicks could not speak enough Arabic to be understood. Hicks wrote home that he had met Osama bin Laden 20 times. He later, however, told investigators he had exaggerated, that he had seen bin Laden about eight times and spoken to him only once.
Prosecutors also allege Hicks was interviewed by Muhammad Atef, an al-Qaeda military commander, about his background and "the travel habits of Australians". In a memoir that was later repudiated by its author, Guantanamo detainee Feroz Abbasi
claimed Hicks was "Al-Qaedah's 24 [carat] Golden Boy" and "obviously the favourite recruit" of their al-Qaeda trainers during exercises at the al-Farouq camp
near Kandahar
. The memoir made a number of claims, including that Hicks was teamed in the training camp with Filipino
recruits from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front
and that, during internment in Camp X-Ray
, Hicks allegedly described his desire to "go back to Australia and rob and kill Jews ... crash a plane into a building" and to "go out with that last big adrenaline rush."
statement claimed that "viewing TV news coverage in Pakistan of the 11 September 2001 attacks against the United States" led Hicks to return to Afghanistan to "rejoin his al-Qaeda associates to fight against U.S., British, Canadian, Australian, Afghan, and other coalition forces." Hicks refutes this claim in his book.
Hicks arrived in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar
where he reported to Saif al Adel, who was assigning individuals to locations, and "armed himself with an AK-47
automatic rifle, ammunition, and grenades to fight against coalition forces." Hicks was given a choice of three locations and chose to join an alleged group of al-Qaeda fighters defending the Kandahar airport. After Coalition bombing commenced in October 2001, Hicks began guarding a Taliban tank position outside the airport. After guarding the tank for a week, Hicks, with an LET
acquaintance, travelled closer to the battle front in Kunduz
where he joined others, including John Walker Lindh
.
Colonel Morris Davis
, chief prosecutor for the US office of Military Commissions, said, "He eventually left Afghanistan and it's my understanding was heading back to Australia when 9/11 happened. When he heard about 9/11, he said it was a good thing (and) he went back to the battlefield, back to Afghanistan, and reported in to the senior leadership of al-Qaeda and basically said, 'I'm David Hicks and I'm reporting for duty.'" Davis also compared Hicks' alleged actions to that of those who carried out terrorist attacks such as Bali, the London and Madrid bombings, and the Beslan school siege. Terry Hicks, however, claimed that his son seemed at first unaware, then sceptical, of the 11 September attacks when they spoke on a mobile phone in early November 2001. He also noted David Hicks commented about "going off to Kabul to defend it against the Northern Alliance
."
In October and November 2001 Hicks wrote multiple letters to his mother, Sue King, back in Australia. He asked that replies were to be directed to Abu Muslim Austraili, a pseudonym he used to circumvent non-Muslim spies he believed intercepted correspondence. In these letters he detailed the validity of Jihad
and his own prospect of "martyrdom".
In November 2005, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
's Four Corners TV program broadcast for the first time a transcript of an interview with Hicks, conducted by the Australian Federal Police
(AFP) in 2002, and other material, including a report that Hicks had signed a statement written by American military investigators stating that he had trained with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, learning guerrilla tactics and urban warfare. The program also reported that Hicks had met Osama bin Laden and that he claimed to have disapproved of the 11 September attacks but to have been unable to leave Afghanistan. He denied engaging in any actual fighting against US or allied forces and states in his autobiography that he was made to sign the aforementioned statement under extreme duress.
Hicks was captured by a "Northern Alliance warlord" near Kunduz
, Afghanistan, on or about 9 December 2001 and turned over to US Special Forces
for US$1000 on 17 December 2001. Hicks's father Terry, when interviewed, said "David was captured by the Northern Alliance unarmed in the back of a truck or a van. So he wasn't on the battlefield at all."
In 2002, Hicks's father sought to have him brought to Australia for trial. Over a year later, in 2003, the Australian government requested that Hicks be brought to trial without further delay, extending Hicks consular support per its responsibilities and legal aid under the Special Circumstances Overseas Scheme.
He also said he met with US military investigators conducting a probe into detainee abuse in Afghanistan and had told the International Red Cross on earlier occasions that he had been mistreated. Hicks told his family in a 2004 visit to Guantanamo Bay that he had been anally assaulted during interrogation by the U.S. in Afghanistan while he was hooded and restrained. Hicks' father claimed; "He said he was anally penetrated a number of times, they put a bag over his head, he wasn't expecting it and didn't know what it was. It was quite brutal." In a Four Corners interview, Terry Hicks discussed these "allegations of physical and sexual abuse of his son by American soldiers".
Hicks claims to have found conditions at the camps in the latter years to be equally trying. According to conversations with his father, Hicks said he had been abused by both Northern Alliance and US soldiers. In response, the Australian government announced its acceptance of U.S. assurances that David Hicks had been treated in accordance with international law. In March 2006, camp authorities moved all ten of the Guantanamo detainees who faced charges into solitary confinement. This was described as a routine measure because of the impending attendance of the detainees at their respective tribunals. However, Hicks remained in solitary confinement, for seven weeks after the US Supreme Court's confirmed a ruling that the commissions were unconstitutional
, which was reported to have "deteriorated his condition".
Hicks was a well-behaved detainee, but he was in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. The window in his cell was internal, facing onto a corridor. Hicks claimed to have declined a visit from Australian Consular officials because he had been punished for speaking candidly with consular officials about the conditions of his detention on previous visits. Hicks was talking about suicidal impulses during his periods in isolation at Camp Echo, "He often talked about wanting to smash his head ... against the metal of his cage and just end it all."
In Guantanamo, Hicks had signed a statement written by American military investigators which read, in part, "I believe that al-Qaeda camps provided a great opportunity for Muslims like myself from all over the world to train for military operations and Jihad. I knew after six months that I was receiving training from al-Qaeda, who had declared war on numerous countries and peoples." The indictment later prepared by U.S. military prosecutors for his commission trial alleged that, prior to his capture in 2001, Hicks had trained and conspired in various ways and was guilty of "aiding the enemy" while an "unprivileged belligerent" but did not allege any specific acts of violence:
On 29 June 2006, the US Supreme Court ruled in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
that the military commissions were illegal under United States law and the Geneva Conventions. The commission trying Hicks was abolished and the charges against him voided.
The US administration has alleged that Hicks:
In an interview with The Age
newspaper in January 2007, Col. Morris Davis
, the chief prosecutor in the Guantanamo military commissions, also alleged that Hicks had been issued with weapons to fight US troops, and had conducted surveillance against US and international embassies. Davis stated he would be charged for these offences, and predicted the charging would take place before the end of January. He alleged that Hicks "knew and associated with a number of al-Qaeda senior leadership" and that "he conducted surveillance on the US embassy and other embassies". He went on to compare Hicks to the Bali bombers
, expressing concern that Australians were misjudging the military commission system due to PR "smoke" from Hicks's lawyer.
James Yee
, a US Army chaplain who regularly counselled Hicks while detained at Guantanamo Bay, gave a statement shortly after Hicks was freed in December 2007. He said that he did not feel Hicks was a threat to Australia, and that "Any American soldier who has been through basic training has had 50 times more training than this guy".
Major Michael Mori
as defence counsel to Hicks. Hicks's civilian defence was being funded by Dick Smith
, an Australian entrepreneur
. Smith has stated that he was funding the defence "to get him a fair trial".
, who had been representing Hicks in Australia without compensation since 2002, was dismissed from the defence team and Vietnam veteran and army reservist David McLeod replaced him.
Hicks's trial was next set for 10 January 2005 but there were numerous postponements and further legal wrangling over the years that followed. In mid-February 2005, Jumana Musa, Amnesty International
's legal observer at Guantanamo Bay, visited Australia to speak to the attorney-general, Philip Ruddock
, (a member of Amnesty International) about the military commissions. Musa stated that Australia was "the only country that seems to have come out and said that the idea of trying somebody, their own citizen, before this process might be OK, and I think that should be a concern to anybody."
In July 2005 a US appeals court accepted the prosecution claim that because "the President of the United States issued a memorandum in which he determined that none of the provisions of the Geneva Conventions apply to our conflict with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan or elsewhere throughout the world because, among other reasons, al Qaeda is not a high contracting party to Geneva," that Hicks, among others, could be tried by a military tribunal. In July 2005, the US appeals court ruled that the trial of "Unlawful Combatants" did not come under the Geneva Convention, and that they could be tried by a military tribunal.
In early August 2005, leaked emails from former US prosecutors criticised the legal process, accusing it of being "a half-hearted and disorganised effort by a skeleton group of relatively inexperienced attorneys to prosecute fairly low-level accused in a process that appears to be rigged" and "writing a motion saying that the process will be full and fair when you don't really believe it is kind of hard, particularly when you want to call yourself an officer and lawyer". Ruddock responded by saying that the emails, written in March 2004, "must be seen as historic rather than current." In October 2005, the US government announced that if Hicks was convicted, his pre-trial detention would not count as time served against his sentence.
On 15 November 2005, District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly stayed the proceeding against Hicks until the US Supreme Court had ruled on Hamdan's appeal over their constitutionality.
2006 was also fraught with delays. On 29 June 2006, in the case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
, the US Supreme Court ruled that the military tribunals were illegal under United States law and the Geneva Conventions
. On 7 July 2006 a memo was issued from The Pentagon directing that all military detainees are entitled to humane treatment and to certain basic legal standards, as required by Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. On 15 August 2006 Attorney-General Philip Ruddock
announced that he would seek to return Hicks to Australia if the United States did not proceed quickly to lay substantive new charges.
On 6 December 2006 Hicks's legal team lodged documents with the Federal Court of Australia
, arguing that the Australian government had breached its protective duty to Hicks as an Australian citizen in custody overseas, and failed to request that Hicks's incarceration by the US comply with the Geneva Convention, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
.
On 9 March 2007, his lawyer said that David Hicks was expected to bring a case seeking to force the Australian Federal Government to ask the US government to free him. On 26 March 2007 Leigh Sales
suggested that "The Hicks defence strategy relies on delaying the process for so long that the Australian Government will be forced to ask for the prisoner’s return."
As years passed, the legitimacy, integrity and fairness of trying Hicks before a US military commission was increasingly questioned.
through his mother, as a consequence of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002
. Hicks's British heritage was revealed during a casual conversation with his lawyer, about the 2005 Ashes cricket series. The British government had previously negotiated the release of the nine British nationals incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay, so it was considered possible that these releases could be extended to Hicks if his application was successful.
Hicks applied for citizenship, but there were six months of delays. In November 2005, the British Home Office
rejected Hicks's application for British citizenship on character grounds, but his lawyers appealed the decision. On 13 December 2005 Lord Justice Lawrence Collins
of the High Court
ruled that then-Home Secretary
Charles Clarke
had "no power in law" to deprive Mr Hicks of British citizenship "and so he must be registered". The Home Office announced it would take the matter to the Court of Appeal
, but Justice Collins denied them a stay of judgement, meaning that the British government must proceed with the application.
On 17 March 2006 the Home Office alleged during its appeal case that Hicks had admitted in 2003 to the Security Service
(British intelligence agency MI5) that he had undergone extensive terrorist training in Afghanistan. On 12 April 2006 the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court's decision that Hicks was entitled to British citizenship. The Home Office declared it would appeal the matter again, its last option being to submit an appeal to Britain's highest court, the House of Lords
, no later than 25 April.
On 5 May, however, the Court of Appeal declared that no further appeals would be allowed, and that the Home Office must grant Hicks British citizenship. Hicks's legal team claimed in the High Court on 14 June 2006 that the process of Mr Hicks's registration as a British citizen had been delayed and obstructed by the United States, which had not allowed British consular access to Hicks in order to conduct the oath of allegiance to the Queen
and the United Kingdom
. His military lawyer has the authority to administer oaths and offered to conduct the oath if the American government permitted it.
On 27 June, with Hicks's British citizenship confirmed, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office
announced that it would not seek to lobby for his release as it had with the other British detainees. The reason given was that Hicks was an Australian citizen when he was captured and detained and that he had received Australian consular assistance. On 5 July 2006 Hicks was registered as a British citizen, albeit only for a few hours — Home Secretary
John Reid intervened to revoke Hicks's new citizenship almost as soon as it had been granted, citing section 56 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006
allowing the Home Secretary to "deprive a person of a citizenship status if the Secretary of State is satisfied that deprivation is conducive to the public good". Hicks's legal team called the decision an "abuse of power
", and announced they would lodge an appeal with the UK Special Immigration Appeals Commission
and the High Court.
requests. The Department of Justice
acknowledged in court that "privileged attorney-client communications" had been seized. Hicks's lawyer questioned whether Hicks could have been part of a suicide plot, since he had spent the preceding four months in solitary confinement in a different part of the camp, and expressed concern that attorney-client confidentiality, "the last legal right that was being respected", had been violated.
. Each offence carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. The prosecutors said they would argue for a jail term of 20 years, with an absolute minimum of 15 years to be served.
However the sentence, which was not required to take into account time already served, was ultimately up to a jury of US military officers. The Convening Authority assessed whether there was enough evidence for charges to be laid and Hicks tried. The charge of providing material support for terrorism was based on retrospectively
applying the law passed in 2006.
On 16 February 2007 a 9-page charge sheet detailing the new charges was officially released by the U.S. Defense Dept.
The charge sheets alleged that:
On 1 March 2007, David Hicks was formally charged with material support for terrorism, and referred to trial by the special military commission. The second charge of attempted murder was dismissed by Judge Susan Crawford, who concluded there was "no probable cause" to justify the charge.
In March 2007, the prospect of further delay loomed when Mori was allegedly threatened with court martial for using contemptuous language toward the US executive, a US military discipline offence, by the Chief U.S. military prosecutor, Colonel Morris Davis, but no charges were filed against Mori.
Leaders and legal commentators in both countries criticised the prosecution as the application of ex post facto law
and deemed the 5-year process to be a violation of Hicks's basic rights. The United States
countered that the charges relating to Hicks were not retrospective but that the Military Commissions Act had codified offences that had been traditionally tried by military commissions and did not establish any new crimes.
Hick's defence lawyer and many international judiciary members claimed that it would have been impossible for a conviction to be found against Hicks. In her book on Hicks, journalist, Leigh Sales, examines more than five years of reporting and dozens of interviews with insiders and looks at the intricacies of Hicks's case, from his capture in Afghanistan, to life in Guantanamo Bay, to the behind-the-scene establishment and workings of the military commissions.
The India
n government launched an investigation into the attacks by Hicks on their armed forces in Kashmir
, during 2000.
, on 31 March, the tribunal handed down a seven year jail sentence for the charge, suspending all but 9 months.
The length of the sentence caused an "outcry" in the United States
and against Defense Department lawyer Susan Crawford, who allegedly bypassed the prosecution in order to meet an agreement with the defense made before the trial. Chief prosecutor Colonel Davis was unaware of the plea deal and surprised at the nine-month sentence, telling The Washington Post
"I wasn't considering anything that didn't have two digits," meaning a sentence of at least 10 years.
Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union
described the case as "an unwitting symbol of our shameful abandonment of the rule of law".
of the Australian Greens
said, "America's guarantee of free speech under its constitution would have rendered such a gag illegal in the U.S." The Law Council of Australia
reported that the trial was "a contrived affair played out for the benefit of the media and the public", "designed to lay a veneer of due process over a political and pragmatic bargain", serving to corrode the rule of law. They referred to government support for the military tribunal process as shameful. In an interview, the prominent human rights lawyer and UN war crimes judge Geoffrey Robertson
QC
said that the pre-trial agreement "was obviously an expedient at the request of an Australian Government that needed to shore up votes". He went on to note that 'no one looks on [the agreement] as a proper judicial procedure at all.';
The Pentagon
chief prosecutor
Colonel Morris Davis
, who had resigned from the US defence force citing dissatisfaction with the Guantanamo military commission process, alleged that the process had become highly politicised and that he had felt "pressured to do something less than full, fair and open". Davis later elaborated, saying that the Hicks trial was flawed and appeared rushed for the political benefit of the Howard
government in Australia. Davis said of his former superiors that "there is no question they wanted me to stage show trials that have nothing to do with the centuries-old tradition of military justice in America". On 28 April 2008, while testifying at a pre-trial hearing at Guantanamo for Salim Hamdan, Colonel Davis said that he had "inherited" the Hicks case but did not consider it serious enough to warrant prosecution.
In November 2007, allegations from an anonymous U.S. military officer, that a high-level political agreement had occurred in the Hicks case, were reported. The officer said that "one of our staffers was present when Vice-President Cheney interfered directly to get Hicks's plea bargain deal. He did it apparently, as part of a deal cut with Howard". Australian Prime Minister John Howard denied any involvement in Hicks's plea bargain.
The Australian government
denied that the media ban had anything to do with itself or the nearing 2007 Australian federal election, with Prime Minister Howard saying "We did not impose the sentence, the sentence was imposed by the military commission and the plea bargain was worked out between the military prosecution and Mr Hicks's lawyers, and the suggestion ... that it's got something to do with the Australian election is absurd." Brigadier-General Thomas Hemingway, the legal adviser to the military tribunal convening authority, has since claimed the gag order as his idea. Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock stated that Australian law would not prohibit Hicks from speaking to media, although Hicks would be prevented from selling his story.
in Adelaide, South Australia on a chartered flight reported to have cost the Australian government up to A$500,000. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock asserted that this arrangement was the consequence of US restrictions on the transit of Hicks through US airspace or territory preventing the use of less expensive commercial flights. Hicks was taken to Adelaide's Yatala Labour Prison
where he was kept in solitary confinement
in the state's highest-security ward, G Division.
Hicks was released on 29 December 2007 and placed under a control order
obtained by the AFP earlier that month. The order required Hicks to not leave Australia, to report to a police station three times a week, and to use only an AFP-approved mobile phone SIM card. On 19 February 2008 he was given special dispensation by federal magistrate Warren Donald to leave South Australia. On 20 February 2008, Hicks moved to Abbotsford, New South Wales
. A curfew between 1:00am and 5:00am was imposed. Hicks' control order expired in December 2008 and the AFP did not renew it.
Hicks married Aloysia Hicks, a human rights activist who studied at the University of Sydney
. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Michael Mori
, one of his former military attorneys, attended the ceremony. It was also reported that Dick Smith secured employment for Hicks in a Sydney landscape gardening business.
During 2010 there were calls for Hicks to commence action to clear his name of the charges. In May 2011 his father, wife and supporters, including former politician and justice
John Dowd
, former Human Rights Commissioner Elizabeth Evatt
, human rights lawyer Julian Burnside
, along with others started a campaign to clear Hicks' name and to push for an inquiry into his alleged mistreatment in Guantanamo.
Their campaign launch featured Brandon Neely
, a former US soldier who guarded Hicks in Guantanamo.
published an autobiography
of Hicks, entitled Guantanamo: My Journey
. Hicks said: “This is the first time I have had the opportunity to tell my story publicly. I hope readers find the book is not only a story of injustice, but also one of hope.” Early reviews of the book were relatively praising of its literary merit.
Australia's proceeds of crime law
prevents convicted criminals profiting from describing their crimes. At the time of publication Nikki Christer, a spokesperson for Random House, refused to comment whether Hicks was being paid for the book or whether the publisher or the author are at risk of falling foul of federal proceeds of crime laws. Christer said that Random House's financial arrangements with its authors were confidential. ABC News
quoted George Williams, a legal expert from the University of New South Wales
who said "You can't proceed unless you actually know that Hicks is profiting. Unless that can be shown then there's no basis to make an order against him." ABC News noted that his conviction might be overturned, in which case he would be free to receive royalties. By July 2011, Australia's Director of Public Prosecutions announced that legal proceedings against Hicks had commenced in the Supreme Court of New South Wales
, under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. Legal experts believe the prosecutions case will fail. In 2004, federal proceeds of crime laws were amended to include offenses covered by the U.S. military commission in order to prevent Hicks from profiting. As the military commission that convicted Hicks was found to be invalid, in 2011 the amendment was repealed and the existing federal proceeds of crime legislation no longer applies although the DPP believes the federal law is still broad enough to cover Hicks. South Australia still has laws preventing Hicks from profiting but these may not apply in regard to a trial that did not satisfy the principles of natural justice and an attempt to apply them to Hicks could, according to Williams, end up in the High Court as a major constitutional challenge.
Following the publication of his autobiography, Hicks received a standing ovation from an audience of 900 people at his first public appearance at the Sydney Writers' Festival
in May 2011.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n who was convicted by the United States of America Guantanamo
Guantanamo military commission
The Guantanamo military commissions are military tribunals created by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 for prosecuting detainees held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps.- History :...
Military Commission under the Military Commissions Act of 2006
Military Commissions Act of 2006
The United States Military Commissions Act of 2006, also known as HR-6166, was an Act of Congress signed by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. Drafted in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on Hamdan v...
, on charges of providing material support for terrorism
Providing material support for terrorism
Providing material support for terrorism is a provision of the USA PATRIOT Act which prohibits material support to groups designated as terrorists. The four types of support described are “training,” “expert advice or assistance,” “service,” and “personnel.” In June 2010 the United States Supreme...
. Hicks was detained by the United States in Guantanamo Bay detention camp from 2001 until 2007 following earlier para-military and terrorism training at Al Farouq training camp
Al Farouq training camp
The Al Farouq training camp, also known as "the airport camp", was an alleged Al-Qaeda training camp near Kandahar, Afghanistan. Camp attendees received small-arms training, map-reading, orientation, explosives training, and other training....
in Afghanistan during 2001.
Hicks became one of the first people charged and subsequently convicted under the United States' Military Commissions Act of 2006. There was widespread Australian and international criticism and political controversy over Hicks' treatment, the evidence tendered against him, his trial outcome, and the newly created legal system under which he was prosecuted.
Earlier, during 1999, Hicks converted to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, took the name Muhammed Dawood, and was later reported as publicly denounced due to Hicks' lack of religious observance. Hicks was captured in Afghanistan in December 2001 by the Afghan Northern Alliance
United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan
The United Islamic Front , known in the West and Pakistan as the Northern Alliance, was a military-political umbrella organization created by the Islamic State of Afghanistan in 1996 under the leadership of Defense Minister Ahmad Shah Massoud...
and sold for a US$1,000 bounty to the United States military. He was transported to Guantanamo Bay where he was designated an enemy combatant
Enemy combatant
Enemy combatant is a term historically referring to members of the armed forces of the state with which another state is at war. Prior to 2008, the definition was: "Any person in an armed conflict who could be properly detained under the laws and customs of war." In the case of a civil war or an...
, during which time he alleges he was tortured. Charges were first filed against Hicks in 2004 under a military commission system newly created by Presidential Order. Those proceedings failed in 2006 when the Supreme Court of the United States ruled, in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 , is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that military commissions set up by the Bush administration to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay lack "the power to proceed because its structures and procedures violate both the Uniform Code of Military...
, that the military commission system
Guantanamo military commission
The Guantanamo military commissions are military tribunals created by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 for prosecuting detainees held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps.- History :...
was unconstitutional. The military commission system was re-established by an act of the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
. Revised charges were filed against Hicks in February 2007 before a new commission under the new act. The following month, in accordance with a pre-trial agreement struck with convening authority
Convening Authority
The term convening authority is used in United States military law to refer to an individual whose job includes appointing officers to play a role in a court-martial, or similar military tribunal or military commission...
Judge Susan J. Crawford, Hicks entered an Alford plea
Alford plea
An Alford plea in United States law is a guilty plea in criminal court, where the defendant does not admit the act and asserts innocence...
to a single newly codified charge of providing material support for terrorism. Hicks's legal team attributed his acceptance of the plea bargain to his "desperation for release from Guantanamo".
In April 2007, Hicks was returned to Australia to serve the remaining nine months of a suspended seven-year sentence. During this period, Hicks was precluded from all media contact and there was criticism for delaying his release until after the 2007 Australian election. Former Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
chief prosecutor
Prosecutor
The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the civil law inquisitorial system...
Colonel Morris Davis
Morris Davis
Colonel Morris D. Davis is a United States Air Force officer and lawyer, was appointed to serve as the third Chief Prosecutor in the Guantanamo military commissions....
later alleged political interference in the case by the Bush administration in the United States and the Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
government in Australia. He also said that Hicks should not have been prosecuted. Hicks served his term in Adelaide's Yatala Labour Prison
Yatala Labour Prison
Yatala Labour Prison is a low- to high-security men's prison in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. It was built in 1854 to enable prisoners to work at the creek, quarrying rock for roads and construction...
and was released under a control order on 29 December 2007. The control order expired in December 2008 and, since married, Hicks now lives in Sydney.
Early life
David Hicks was born in AdelaideAdelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
to Terry Hicks
Terry Hicks
Terry Hicks is an Australian man who is known for his campaign for his son David Hicks. His campaign included staying in a Guantanamo Bay-sized cage on a New York pavement and outside a convention centre in Adelaide, confronting Prime Minister John Howard on talkback radio and being interviewed by...
and Susan Hicks. His parents separated when he was ten years old and his father later remarried. He has a half sister.
Described by his father as "a typical boy who couldn't settle down" and by his former school principal as one of "the most troublesome kids", Hicks reportedly experimented with alcohol and drugs as a teenager and was expelled from Smithfield Plains High school in 1990 at age 14. Before turning 15, Hicks was given dispensation by his father from attending school. His former partner has claimed that Hicks then turned to criminal activity, including vehicle theft, allegedly in order to feed himself, although no adult criminal record was ever recorded for this.
Hicks moved between various jobs, including factory work and working at a series of outback cattle stations
Station (Australian agriculture)
Station is the term for a large Australian landholding used for livestock production. It corresponds to the North American term ranch or South American estancia...
in the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
, Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
and South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
. He met Jodie Sparrow in Adelaide when he was 17 years old. Sparrow already had one child and Hicks raised her daughter as his own. Hicks and Sparrow had two children, daughter Bonnie and son Terry, before separating in 1996. He eventually lost contact with his two young children after Sparrow had an affair with another man. After their separation, Hicks moved to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
to become a horse trainer.
Religious and militant activities
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
, joining the Kosovo Liberation Army
Kosovo Liberation Army
The Kosovo Liberation Army or KLA was a Kosovar Albanian paramilitary organization which sought the separation of Kosovo from Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1990s....
(KLA), a militant organisation of ethnic Albanians
Albanians
Albanians are a nation and ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo...
fighting against Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
n forces in the Kosovo War
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
, for two months. Hicks states in his autobiography that during this period he did not engage in any actual hostilities nor enter Kosovan territory. Upon return to Australia, Hicks applied to join the Australian Army
Australian Army
The Australian Army is Australia's military land force. It is part of the Australian Defence Force along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. While the Chief of Defence commands the Australian Defence Force , the Army is commanded by the Chief of Army...
but was rejected due to his low level of formal education.
Hicks then converted to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, and began studying Wahhabism
Wahhabism
Wahhabism is a religious movement or a branch of Islam. It was developed by an 18th century Muslim theologian from Najd, Saudi Arabia. Ibn Abdul Al-Wahhab advocated purging Islam of what he considered to be impurities and innovations...
at a mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
in Gilles Plains
Gilles Plains, South Australia
Gilles Plains is a suburb of the greater Adelaide, South Australia area, located approximately 15 km north of the Adelaide business district.-History:...
, a suburb north of Adelaide. The president of the Islamic society of South Australia, Wali Hanifi, described Hicks as having "some interest in military things", and that "after personal experience and research, that Islam was the answer". In 2010, Hicks explained his motivation to convert to Islam:
My motivation was not a religious search for spirituality; it was more a search for somewhere to belong and to be with people who shared my interest in world affairs. In my youth I was impulsive. Unfortunately, many of my decisions of that time are a reflection of that trait.
He renounced his faith during the earlier years of his detention at Guantánamo. In June 2006, Moazzam Begg
Moazzam Begg
Moazzam Begg , is a British Pakistani Muslim who was held in extrajudicial detention in the Bagram Theater Internment Facility and the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, in Cuba, by the U.S...
, a British man who had also been held at Guantanamo Bay but was released in 2005, claimed in his book Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim's Journey to Guantanamo and Back that Hicks had abandoned his Islamic beliefs, and had been denounced by a fellow inmate, Uthman al-Harbi, for his lack of observance. This has also been confirmed by his military lawyer, Major Michael Mori
Michael Mori
Michael Dante Mori is a lieutenant colonel in the United States Marine Corps. Mori was the military lawyer for Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks.-History:...
. However, he declined to say why Hicks was no longer a Muslim, saying it was a personal issue for David Hicks.
Lashkar-e-Taiba
On 11 November 1999, Hicks travelled to PakistanPakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
to study Islam and began training with Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba – also transliterated as Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Lashkar-i-Taiba, Lashkar Taiba or LeT – is one of the largest and most active militant Islamist terrorist organizations in South Asia, operating mainly from Pakistan.It was founded by Hafiz Muhammad...
in early 2000. In the U.S. Military Commission charges presented in 2004, the U.S. accused Hicks of training at the Mosqua Aqsa camp in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, after which he "travelled to a border region between Pakistan-controlled Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
and Indian-controlled Kashmir, where he engaged in hostile action against Indian forces."
In a March 2000 letter to his family, Hicks wrote:
don't ask what's happened, I can't be bothered explaining the outcome of these strange events has put me in Pakistan-Kashmir in a training camp. Three months training. After which it is my decision whether to cross the line of control into Indian occupied Kashmir.
In another letter on 10 August 2000, Hicks wrote from Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
claiming to have been a guest of Pakistan's army for two weeks at the front in the "controlled war" with India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
:
I got to fire hundreds of bullets. Most Muslim countries impose hanging for civilians arming themselves for conflict. There are not many countries in the world where a tourist, according to his visa, can go to stay with the army and shoot across the border at its enemy, legally.
During this period, Hicks kept a notebook to document his training in weapon use, explosives, and military tactics, in which he wrote that guerilla warfare involved "sacrifice for Allah". He took extensive notes on, and made sketches of, various weaponry mechanisms and attack strategies (including Heckler & Koch
Heckler & Koch
Heckler & Koch GmbH is a German defense manufacturing company that produces various small arms. Some of their products include the SA80, MP5 submachine gun, G3 automatic rifle, the G36 assault rifle, the HK 416, the MP7 personal defense weapon, the USP series of handguns, and the high-precision...
submachine guns, the M16
M16 rifle
The M16 is the United States military designation for the AR-15 rifle adapted for both semi-automatic and full-automatic fire. Colt purchased the rights to the AR-15 from ArmaLite, and currently uses that designation only for semi-automatic versions of the rifle. The M16 fires the 5.56×45mm NATO...
assault rifle, RPG-7 grenade launcher, anti-tank rockets, and VIP security infiltration). Letters to his family detailed his training:
I learnt about weapons such as ballistic missiles, surface to surface and shoulder fired missiles, anti aircraft and anti-tank rockets, rapid fire heavy and light machine guns, pistols, AK47s, mines and explosives. After three months everybody leaves capable and war-ready being able to use all of these weapons capably and responsibly. I am now very well trained for jihad in weapons some serious like anti-aircraft missiles.
In January 2001, Hicks was provided with funding and an introductory letter from Lashkar-e-Taiba. He then travelled to Afghanistan to attend training. According to Hicks' autobiography Guantanamo: My Journey
Guantanamo: My Journey
Guantanamo: My Journey is the autobiography of David Hicks, an Australian who was held in the U.S.'s Guantanamo Bay detention camp for years before eventually pleading guilty to the charge of "material support to terrorism" in a military commission trial...
, he was unfamiliar with the name Al-Qaeda until after his detainment in Guantanamo Bay.
Afghanistan
Upon arrival in Afghanistan, Hicks allegedly went to an al-Qaeda guest house where he met Ibn al-Shaykh al-LibiIbn al-Shaykh al-Libi
Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi was a Libyan paramilitary trainer for Al-Qaeda. After being captured and interrogated by the American and Egyptian forces, the information he gave under torture by Egyptian authorities was cited by the George W. Bush Administration in the months preceding the 2003 invasion of...
, a high ranking al Qaeda member. He turned over his passport and indicated to them that he would use the alias "Muhammad Dawood".
Hicks allegedly "attended a number of al-Qaeda training courses at various camps around Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, learning guerilla warfare, weapons training, including landmines, kidnapping techniques and assassination methods." He also allegedly participated "in an advanced course on surveillance, in which he conducted surveillance of the US and British embassies in Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
, Afghanistan." However, both embassies had closed in 1989 and did not re-open until after Hick's arrest. Hicks strongly denies that he had any involvement with al-Qaeda, nor that he knew the camp had any al-Qaeda links. According to Hicks, he had not even heard of the organisation until he was taken to Cuba.
There were three or four camps under the name of Camp Farouk at that time in Afghanistan. I attended the open mainstream camp, not terrorist camps. I would not have been there if there was any suggestion of terrorist activity or the targeting of civilians. How would a white boy new to Islam, not understanding local customs or languages, largely uneducated in the ways of the world, get access to such supposedly secret camps planning acts of terror? The camps I attended were not al-Qaeda. I did not hear about such an organisation until my arrival in Guantanamo Bay.
On one occasion when al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
founder Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
visited an Afghan camp, the US Defense Department alleges Hicks questioned bin Laden about the lack of English in training material and subsequently "began to translate the training camp materials from Arabic to English". Hicks denies this and also denies having had the prerequisite language proficiency, a claim supported by Major Michael Mori
Michael Mori
Michael Dante Mori is a lieutenant colonel in the United States Marine Corps. Mori was the military lawyer for Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks.-History:...
and fellow detainee Moazzam Begg
Moazzam Begg
Moazzam Begg , is a British Pakistani Muslim who was held in extrajudicial detention in the Bagram Theater Internment Facility and the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, in Cuba, by the U.S...
who stated that Hicks could not speak enough Arabic to be understood. Hicks wrote home that he had met Osama bin Laden 20 times. He later, however, told investigators he had exaggerated, that he had seen bin Laden about eight times and spoken to him only once.
There are a lot of Muslims who want to meet Osama Bin Laden but after being a Muslim for 16 months I get to meet him.
Prosecutors also allege Hicks was interviewed by Muhammad Atef, an al-Qaeda military commander, about his background and "the travel habits of Australians". In a memoir that was later repudiated by its author, Guantanamo detainee Feroz Abbasi
Feroz Abbasi
Feroz Abbasi is one of nine British men who were held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. He was released from detention on 25 January 2005 along with Moazzam Begg, Martin Mubanga and Richard Belmar, the other five having previously been...
claimed Hicks was "Al-Qaedah's 24 [carat] Golden Boy" and "obviously the favourite recruit" of their al-Qaeda trainers during exercises at the al-Farouq camp
Al Farouq training camp
The Al Farouq training camp, also known as "the airport camp", was an alleged Al-Qaeda training camp near Kandahar, Afghanistan. Camp attendees received small-arms training, map-reading, orientation, explosives training, and other training....
near Kandahar
Kandahar
Kandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of about 512,200 as of 2011. It is the capital of Kandahar Province, located in the south of the country at about 1,005 m above sea level...
. The memoir made a number of claims, including that Hicks was teamed in the training camp with Filipino
Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
recruits from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front
Moro Islamic Liberation Front
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is an Islamist group located in the southern Philippines. It is one of two Islamic militant groups, the other being the Abu Sayyaf, that are fighting against Government of the Philippines...
and that, during internment in Camp X-Ray
Camp X-Ray
Camp X-Ray was a temporary detention facility at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp of Joint Task Force Guantanamo on the U.S. Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.The first twenty detainees arrived at Guantanamo on January 11, 2002....
, Hicks allegedly described his desire to "go back to Australia and rob and kill Jews ... crash a plane into a building" and to "go out with that last big adrenaline rush."
September 2001
On 9 September 2001, Hicks travelled from Afghanistan to Pakistan to visit a friend. A US Department of DefenseUnited States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
statement claimed that "viewing TV news coverage in Pakistan of the 11 September 2001 attacks against the United States" led Hicks to return to Afghanistan to "rejoin his al-Qaeda associates to fight against U.S., British, Canadian, Australian, Afghan, and other coalition forces." Hicks refutes this claim in his book.
Hicks arrived in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar
Kandahar
Kandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of about 512,200 as of 2011. It is the capital of Kandahar Province, located in the south of the country at about 1,005 m above sea level...
where he reported to Saif al Adel, who was assigning individuals to locations, and "armed himself with an AK-47
AK-47
The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova . It is also known as a Kalashnikov, an "AK", or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year...
automatic rifle, ammunition, and grenades to fight against coalition forces." Hicks was given a choice of three locations and chose to join an alleged group of al-Qaeda fighters defending the Kandahar airport. After Coalition bombing commenced in October 2001, Hicks began guarding a Taliban tank position outside the airport. After guarding the tank for a week, Hicks, with an LET
Lashkar-e-Toiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba – also transliterated as Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Lashkar-i-Taiba, Lashkar Taiba or LeT – is one of the largest and most active militant Islamist terrorist organizations in South Asia, operating mainly from Pakistan.It was founded by Hafiz Muhammad...
acquaintance, travelled closer to the battle front in Kunduz
Kunduz
Kunduz also known as Kundûz, Qonduz, Qondûz, Konduz, Kondûz, Kondoz, or Qhunduz is a city in northern Afghanistan, the capital of Kunduz Province. It is linked by highways with Mazari Sharif to the west, Kabul to the south and Tajikistan's border to the north...
where he joined others, including John Walker Lindh
John Walker Lindh
John Phillip Walker Lindh is a United States citizen who was captured as an enemy combatant during the United States' 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. He is now serving a 20-year prison sentence in connection with his participation in Afghanistan's Taliban army...
.
Colonel Morris Davis
Morris Davis
Colonel Morris D. Davis is a United States Air Force officer and lawyer, was appointed to serve as the third Chief Prosecutor in the Guantanamo military commissions....
, chief prosecutor for the US office of Military Commissions, said, "He eventually left Afghanistan and it's my understanding was heading back to Australia when 9/11 happened. When he heard about 9/11, he said it was a good thing (and) he went back to the battlefield, back to Afghanistan, and reported in to the senior leadership of al-Qaeda and basically said, 'I'm David Hicks and I'm reporting for duty.'" Davis also compared Hicks' alleged actions to that of those who carried out terrorist attacks such as Bali, the London and Madrid bombings, and the Beslan school siege. Terry Hicks, however, claimed that his son seemed at first unaware, then sceptical, of the 11 September attacks when they spoke on a mobile phone in early November 2001. He also noted David Hicks commented about "going off to Kabul to defend it against the Northern Alliance
United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan
The United Islamic Front , known in the West and Pakistan as the Northern Alliance, was a military-political umbrella organization created by the Islamic State of Afghanistan in 1996 under the leadership of Defense Minister Ahmad Shah Massoud...
."
In October and November 2001 Hicks wrote multiple letters to his mother, Sue King, back in Australia. He asked that replies were to be directed to Abu Muslim Austraili, a pseudonym he used to circumvent non-Muslim spies he believed intercepted correspondence. In these letters he detailed the validity of Jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
and his own prospect of "martyrdom".
As a Muslim young and fit my responsibility is to protect my brothers from aggressive non-believers and not let them destroy it. Islam will rule again but for now we must have patience we are asked to sacrifice our lives for Allahs cause why not? There are many privileges in heaven. It is not just war, it is jihad. One reward I get in being martyred I get to take ten members of my family to heaven who were destined for hell, but first I also must be martyred. We are all going to die one day so why not be martyred?
In November 2005, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
's Four Corners TV program broadcast for the first time a transcript of an interview with Hicks, conducted by the Australian Federal Police
Australian Federal Police
The Australian Federal Police is the federal police agency of the Commonwealth of Australia. Although the AFP was created by the amalgamation in 1979 of three Commonwealth law enforcement agencies, it traces its history from Commonwealth law enforcement agencies dating back to the federation of...
(AFP) in 2002, and other material, including a report that Hicks had signed a statement written by American military investigators stating that he had trained with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, learning guerrilla tactics and urban warfare. The program also reported that Hicks had met Osama bin Laden and that he claimed to have disapproved of the 11 September attacks but to have been unable to leave Afghanistan. He denied engaging in any actual fighting against US or allied forces and states in his autobiography that he was made to sign the aforementioned statement under extreme duress.
Capture and detention
Kunduz
Kunduz also known as Kundûz, Qonduz, Qondûz, Konduz, Kondûz, Kondoz, or Qhunduz is a city in northern Afghanistan, the capital of Kunduz Province. It is linked by highways with Mazari Sharif to the west, Kabul to the south and Tajikistan's border to the north...
, Afghanistan, on or about 9 December 2001 and turned over to US Special Forces
United States Army Special Forces
The United States Army Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets because of their distinctive service headgear, are a special operations force tasked with six primary missions: unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, special reconnaissance, direct action, hostage rescue, and...
for US$1000 on 17 December 2001. Hicks's father Terry, when interviewed, said "David was captured by the Northern Alliance unarmed in the back of a truck or a van. So he wasn't on the battlefield at all."
In 2002, Hicks's father sought to have him brought to Australia for trial. Over a year later, in 2003, the Australian government requested that Hicks be brought to trial without further delay, extending Hicks consular support per its responsibilities and legal aid under the Special Circumstances Overseas Scheme.
Torture allegations
In an affidavit, dated 5 August 2004 and released on 10 December 2004, Hicks alleged mistreatment by U.S. forces, included being:- beaten while blindfolded and handcuffed
- forced to take unidentified medication
- sedated by injection without consent
- struck while under sedation
- regularly forced to run in leg shackles causing ankle injury
- deprived of sleep "as a matter of policy"
- witness to use of attack dogs to brutalise and injure detainees.
He also said he met with US military investigators conducting a probe into detainee abuse in Afghanistan and had told the International Red Cross on earlier occasions that he had been mistreated. Hicks told his family in a 2004 visit to Guantanamo Bay that he had been anally assaulted during interrogation by the U.S. in Afghanistan while he was hooded and restrained. Hicks' father claimed; "He said he was anally penetrated a number of times, they put a bag over his head, he wasn't expecting it and didn't know what it was. It was quite brutal." In a Four Corners interview, Terry Hicks discussed these "allegations of physical and sexual abuse of his son by American soldiers".
Hicks claims to have found conditions at the camps in the latter years to be equally trying. According to conversations with his father, Hicks said he had been abused by both Northern Alliance and US soldiers. In response, the Australian government announced its acceptance of U.S. assurances that David Hicks had been treated in accordance with international law. In March 2006, camp authorities moved all ten of the Guantanamo detainees who faced charges into solitary confinement. This was described as a routine measure because of the impending attendance of the detainees at their respective tribunals. However, Hicks remained in solitary confinement, for seven weeks after the US Supreme Court's confirmed a ruling that the commissions were unconstitutional
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
, which was reported to have "deteriorated his condition".
Hicks was a well-behaved detainee, but he was in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. The window in his cell was internal, facing onto a corridor. Hicks claimed to have declined a visit from Australian Consular officials because he had been punished for speaking candidly with consular officials about the conditions of his detention on previous visits. Hicks was talking about suicidal impulses during his periods in isolation at Camp Echo, "He often talked about wanting to smash his head ... against the metal of his cage and just end it all."
Initial charges
Hicks was charged by a U.S. military commission on 26 August 2004.In Guantanamo, Hicks had signed a statement written by American military investigators which read, in part, "I believe that al-Qaeda camps provided a great opportunity for Muslims like myself from all over the world to train for military operations and Jihad. I knew after six months that I was receiving training from al-Qaeda, who had declared war on numerous countries and peoples." The indictment later prepared by U.S. military prosecutors for his commission trial alleged that, prior to his capture in 2001, Hicks had trained and conspired in various ways and was guilty of "aiding the enemy" while an "unprivileged belligerent" but did not allege any specific acts of violence:
- In November 1999 Hicks travelled to PakistanPakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, where he joined the paramilitary IslamistIslamismIslamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
group, Lashkar-e-ToibaLashkar-e-ToibaLashkar-e-Taiba – also transliterated as Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Lashkar-i-Taiba, Lashkar Taiba or LeT – is one of the largest and most active militant Islamist terrorist organizations in South Asia, operating mainly from Pakistan.It was founded by Hafiz Muhammad...
(Army of the Pure). - Hicks trained for two months at a Lashkar-e-Toiba camp in Pakistan, where he received weapons training, and that during 2000 he served with a Lashkar-e-Toiba group near the Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
- In January 2001 Hicks travelled to AfghanistanAfghanistanAfghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, then under the control of the Taliban regime, where he presented a letter of introduction from Lashkar-e-Toiba to Ibn al-Shaykh al-LibiIbn al-Shaykh al-LibiIbn al-Shaykh al-Libi was a Libyan paramilitary trainer for Al-Qaeda. After being captured and interrogated by the American and Egyptian forces, the information he gave under torture by Egyptian authorities was cited by the George W. Bush Administration in the months preceding the 2003 invasion of...
, a senior al-QaedaAl-QaedaAl-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
member, and was given the alias "Mohammed Dawood". - He was sent to al-Qaeda's al-Farouq training campAl Farouq training campThe Al Farouq training camp, also known as "the airport camp", was an alleged Al-Qaeda training camp near Kandahar, Afghanistan. Camp attendees received small-arms training, map-reading, orientation, explosives training, and other training....
outside KandaharKandaharKandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of about 512,200 as of 2011. It is the capital of Kandahar Province, located in the south of the country at about 1,005 m above sea level...
, where he trained for eight weeks, receiving further weapons training as well as training with land mines and explosives. - He did a further seven-week course at al-Farouq, during which he studied marksmanship, ambush, camouflage and intelligence techniques.
- At Osama bin LadenOsama bin LadenOsama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
's request, Hicks translated some al-Qaeda training materials from Arabic into English. - In June 2001, on the instructions of Mohammed AtefMohammed AtefMohammed Atef was the alleged military chief of al-Qaida, although his role in the organization was not well known by intelligence agencies for years...
, an al-Qaeda military commander, Hicks went to another training camp at Tarnak Farm, where he studied "urban tactics", including the use of assault and sniper rifles, rappelling, kidnapping and assassination techniques. - In August Hicks went to KabulKabulKabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
, where he studied information collection and intelligence, as well as Islamic theology including the doctrines of jihadJihadJihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
and martyrdom as understood through al-Qaeda's fundamentalist interpretation of Islam. - In September 2001 Hicks travelled to Pakistan and was there at the time of the 11 September attacks on the United States, which he saw on television.
- He returned to Afghanistan in anticipation of the attack by the United States and its allies on the Taliban regime, which was sheltering Osama bin Laden.
- On returning to Kabul, Hicks was assigned by Mohammed Atef to the defence of Kandahar, and that he joined a group of mixed al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters at Kandahar airportKandahar AirfieldKandahar International Airport is located 10 miles south-east of Kandahar City in Afghanistan. The airport was built by the United States in the 1960s, under the United States Agency for International Development program. It may have been intended to be used as a possible U.S...
, and that at the end of October, however, Hicks and his party travelled north to join in the fighting against the forces of the US and its allies. - After arriving in Konduz on 9 November 2001, he joined a group which included John Walker LindhJohn Walker LindhJohn Phillip Walker Lindh is a United States citizen who was captured as an enemy combatant during the United States' 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. He is now serving a 20-year prison sentence in connection with his participation in Afghanistan's Taliban army...
(the "American Taliban"). This group was engaged in combat against Coalition forces, and during this fighting he was captured by Coalition forces.
On 29 June 2006, the US Supreme Court ruled in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 , is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that military commissions set up by the Bush administration to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay lack "the power to proceed because its structures and procedures violate both the Uniform Code of Military...
that the military commissions were illegal under United States law and the Geneva Conventions. The commission trying Hicks was abolished and the charges against him voided.
The US administration has alleged that Hicks:
- Attended advanced al-Qaeda training camps
- Associated with senior al-Qaeda leaders after 9/11
- Was issued weapons to fight US troops in Afghanistan
- Carried out surveillance on US and other international embassies
In an interview with The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
newspaper in January 2007, Col. Morris Davis
Morris Davis
Colonel Morris D. Davis is a United States Air Force officer and lawyer, was appointed to serve as the third Chief Prosecutor in the Guantanamo military commissions....
, the chief prosecutor in the Guantanamo military commissions, also alleged that Hicks had been issued with weapons to fight US troops, and had conducted surveillance against US and international embassies. Davis stated he would be charged for these offences, and predicted the charging would take place before the end of January. He alleged that Hicks "knew and associated with a number of al-Qaeda senior leadership" and that "he conducted surveillance on the US embassy and other embassies". He went on to compare Hicks to the Bali bombers
2002 Bali bombing
The 2002 Bali bombings occurred on 12 October 2002 in the tourist district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali. The attack was claimed as the deadliest act of terrorism in the history of Indonesia according to the current police general, killing 202 people,...
, expressing concern that Australians were misjudging the military commission system due to PR "smoke" from Hicks's lawyer.
James Yee
James Yee
James J. Yee is an American former United States Army chaplain with the rank of captain...
, a US Army chaplain who regularly counselled Hicks while detained at Guantanamo Bay, gave a statement shortly after Hicks was freed in December 2007. He said that he did not feel Hicks was a threat to Australia, and that "Any American soldier who has been through basic training has had 50 times more training than this guy".
Defence team
The U.S. Army appointed United States Marine CorpsUnited States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
Major Michael Mori
Michael Mori
Michael Dante Mori is a lieutenant colonel in the United States Marine Corps. Mori was the military lawyer for Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks.-History:...
as defence counsel to Hicks. Hicks's civilian defence was being funded by Dick Smith
Dick Smith (entrepreneur)
Dick Smith, AO is an Australian entrepreneur, businessman, aviator, and political activist. He is the founder of Dick Smith Electronics, Dick Smith Foods and Australian Geographic, and was selected as the 1986 Australian of the Year.-Electronics:In 1968, Dick Smith founded electronics retailer...
, an Australian entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
. Smith has stated that he was funding the defence "to get him a fair trial".
Delays in legal proceedings
In November 2004 Hicks's trial was delayed when a US Federal Court ruled that the military commissions in question were unconstitutional. In February 2005 the Hicks's family lawyer, Stephen KennyStephen Kenny (Australian lawyer)
Stephen Kenny is an Australian lawyer. He was Guantanamo detainee David Hicks's original lawyer.Stephen Kenny has practiced as a Barrister and Solicitor in Australia for over 25 years. He has always maintained a strong interest in civil libertarian matters and is the past Chairperson of the South...
, who had been representing Hicks in Australia without compensation since 2002, was dismissed from the defence team and Vietnam veteran and army reservist David McLeod replaced him.
Hicks's trial was next set for 10 January 2005 but there were numerous postponements and further legal wrangling over the years that followed. In mid-February 2005, Jumana Musa, Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
's legal observer at Guantanamo Bay, visited Australia to speak to the attorney-general, Philip Ruddock
Philip Ruddock
Philip Maxwell Ruddock is an Australian politician who is currently a member of the House of Representatives representing the Division of Berowra, New South Wales, for the Liberal Party of Australia...
, (a member of Amnesty International) about the military commissions. Musa stated that Australia was "the only country that seems to have come out and said that the idea of trying somebody, their own citizen, before this process might be OK, and I think that should be a concern to anybody."
In July 2005 a US appeals court accepted the prosecution claim that because "the President of the United States issued a memorandum in which he determined that none of the provisions of the Geneva Conventions apply to our conflict with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan or elsewhere throughout the world because, among other reasons, al Qaeda is not a high contracting party to Geneva," that Hicks, among others, could be tried by a military tribunal. In July 2005, the US appeals court ruled that the trial of "Unlawful Combatants" did not come under the Geneva Convention, and that they could be tried by a military tribunal.
In early August 2005, leaked emails from former US prosecutors criticised the legal process, accusing it of being "a half-hearted and disorganised effort by a skeleton group of relatively inexperienced attorneys to prosecute fairly low-level accused in a process that appears to be rigged" and "writing a motion saying that the process will be full and fair when you don't really believe it is kind of hard, particularly when you want to call yourself an officer and lawyer". Ruddock responded by saying that the emails, written in March 2004, "must be seen as historic rather than current." In October 2005, the US government announced that if Hicks was convicted, his pre-trial detention would not count as time served against his sentence.
On 15 November 2005, District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly stayed the proceeding against Hicks until the US Supreme Court had ruled on Hamdan's appeal over their constitutionality.
2006 was also fraught with delays. On 29 June 2006, in the case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 , is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that military commissions set up by the Bush administration to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay lack "the power to proceed because its structures and procedures violate both the Uniform Code of Military...
, the US Supreme Court ruled that the military tribunals were illegal under United States law and the Geneva Conventions
Geneva Conventions
The Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment of the victims of war...
. On 7 July 2006 a memo was issued from The Pentagon directing that all military detainees are entitled to humane treatment and to certain basic legal standards, as required by Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. On 15 August 2006 Attorney-General Philip Ruddock
Philip Ruddock
Philip Maxwell Ruddock is an Australian politician who is currently a member of the House of Representatives representing the Division of Berowra, New South Wales, for the Liberal Party of Australia...
announced that he would seek to return Hicks to Australia if the United States did not proceed quickly to lay substantive new charges.
On 6 December 2006 Hicks's legal team lodged documents with the Federal Court of Australia
Federal Court of Australia
The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court of record which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law , along with some summary criminal matters. Cases are heard at first instance by single Judges...
, arguing that the Australian government had breached its protective duty to Hicks as an Australian citizen in custody overseas, and failed to request that Hicks's incarceration by the US comply with the Geneva Convention, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 16, 1966, and in force from March 23, 1976...
and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...
.
On 9 March 2007, his lawyer said that David Hicks was expected to bring a case seeking to force the Australian Federal Government to ask the US government to free him. On 26 March 2007 Leigh Sales
Leigh Sales
Leigh Sales, born 1973 is an author and award-winning journalist and presenter of 7.30 with the Australian national broadcaster, the ABC.-Biography:Sales grew up in Queensland and was a journalist with the Nine Network in Brisbane before joining the ABC...
suggested that "The Hicks defence strategy relies on delaying the process for so long that the Australian Government will be forced to ask for the prisoner’s return."
As years passed, the legitimacy, integrity and fairness of trying Hicks before a US military commission was increasingly questioned.
British citizenship bid
In September 2005, it was realised that Hicks may be eligible for British citizenshipBritish nationality law
British nationality law is the law of the United Kingdom that concerns citizenship and other categories of British nationality. The law is complex because of the United Kingdom's former status as an imperial power.-History:...
through his mother, as a consequence of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002
Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002
The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It received Royal Assent on 7 November 2002....
. Hicks's British heritage was revealed during a casual conversation with his lawyer, about the 2005 Ashes cricket series. The British government had previously negotiated the release of the nine British nationals incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay, so it was considered possible that these releases could be extended to Hicks if his application was successful.
Hicks applied for citizenship, but there were six months of delays. In November 2005, the British Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
rejected Hicks's application for British citizenship on character grounds, but his lawyers appealed the decision. On 13 December 2005 Lord Justice Lawrence Collins
Lawrence Collins
Lawrence Antony Collins, Baron Collins of Mapesbury, PC , is a British judge and former Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. He was also appointed to the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong on April 11, 2011 as a non-permanent judges from other common law jurisdictions...
of the High Court
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
ruled that then-Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
Charles Clarke
Charles Clarke
Charles Rodway Clarke is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Norwich South from 1997 until 2010, and served as Home Secretary from December 2004 until May 2006.-Early life:...
had "no power in law" to deprive Mr Hicks of British citizenship "and so he must be registered". The Home Office announced it would take the matter to the Court of Appeal
Court of Appeal of England and Wales
The Court of Appeal of England and Wales is the second most senior court in the English legal system, with only the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom above it...
, but Justice Collins denied them a stay of judgement, meaning that the British government must proceed with the application.
On 17 March 2006 the Home Office alleged during its appeal case that Hicks had admitted in 2003 to the Security Service
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
(British intelligence agency MI5) that he had undergone extensive terrorist training in Afghanistan. On 12 April 2006 the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court's decision that Hicks was entitled to British citizenship. The Home Office declared it would appeal the matter again, its last option being to submit an appeal to Britain's highest court, the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
, no later than 25 April.
On 5 May, however, the Court of Appeal declared that no further appeals would be allowed, and that the Home Office must grant Hicks British citizenship. Hicks's legal team claimed in the High Court on 14 June 2006 that the process of Mr Hicks's registration as a British citizen had been delayed and obstructed by the United States, which had not allowed British consular access to Hicks in order to conduct the oath of allegiance to the Queen
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. His military lawyer has the authority to administer oaths and offered to conduct the oath if the American government permitted it.
On 27 June, with Hicks's British citizenship confirmed, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
announced that it would not seek to lobby for his release as it had with the other British detainees. The reason given was that Hicks was an Australian citizen when he was captured and detained and that he had received Australian consular assistance. On 5 July 2006 Hicks was registered as a British citizen, albeit only for a few hours — Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
John Reid intervened to revoke Hicks's new citizenship almost as soon as it had been granted, citing section 56 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006
Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006
The Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.It is the fifth major piece of legislation relating to immigration and asylum since 1993.-Commencement Orders:...
allowing the Home Secretary to "deprive a person of a citizenship status if the Secretary of State is satisfied that deprivation is conducive to the public good". Hicks's legal team called the decision an "abuse of power
Abuse of Power
Abuse of Power is a novel written by radio talk show host Michael Savage.- Plot :Jack Hatfield is a hardened former war correspondent who rose to national prominence for his insightful, provocative commentary...
", and announced they would lodge an appeal with the UK Special Immigration Appeals Commission
Special Immigration Appeals Commission
The Special Immigration Appeals Commission is a superior court of record in the United Kingdom established by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission Act 1997 that deals with appeals from persons deported by the Home Secretary under various statutory powers, and usually related to matters of...
and the High Court.
Seizure of legal papers
Following the suicide of three detainees, camp authorities seized prisoners' papers. Described as a security measure, it was claimed that instructions for tying a hangman's noose had been found written on stationery issued to the lawyers who met with detainees to discuss their habeas corpusHabeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
requests. The Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
acknowledged in court that "privileged attorney-client communications" had been seized. Hicks's lawyer questioned whether Hicks could have been part of a suicide plot, since he had spent the preceding four months in solitary confinement in a different part of the camp, and expressed concern that attorney-client confidentiality, "the last legal right that was being respected", had been violated.
New charges
On 3 February 2007 the U.S. military commission announced that it had prepared new charges against David Hicks. The drafted charges were "attempted murder" and "providing material support for terrorism", under the Military Commissions Act of 2006Military Commissions Act of 2006
The United States Military Commissions Act of 2006, also known as HR-6166, was an Act of Congress signed by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. Drafted in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on Hamdan v...
. Each offence carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. The prosecutors said they would argue for a jail term of 20 years, with an absolute minimum of 15 years to be served.
However the sentence, which was not required to take into account time already served, was ultimately up to a jury of US military officers. The Convening Authority assessed whether there was enough evidence for charges to be laid and Hicks tried. The charge of providing material support for terrorism was based on retrospectively
Ex post facto law
An ex post facto law or retroactive law is a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences of actions committed or relationships that existed prior to the enactment of the law...
applying the law passed in 2006.
On 16 February 2007 a 9-page charge sheet detailing the new charges was officially released by the U.S. Defense Dept.
The charge sheets alleged that:
- Around August 2001 Hicks conducted surveillance on the American and British embassies in Kabul.
- Using the name Abu Muslim Austraili he attended al-Qaeda training camps.
- Around April 2001 Hicks returned to al Farouq and trained "in al-Qa'ida's guerilla warfare and mountain tactics training course". The course included "marksmanship; small team tactics; ambush; camouflage; rendezvous techniques; and techniques to pass intelligence to al-Qa'ida operatives".
- While at the al Farouq camp, al-Qa'ida leader Osama bin Laden visited the camp on several occasions and "during one visit Hicks expressed to bin Laden his concern over the lack of English al-Qa'ida training material".
- On or about 12 September 2001 he left Pakistan after watching TV footage of the 11 September terrorist attacks to return to Afghanistan "and, again joined with al-Qa'ida".
- On his return to Afghanistan Hicks was issued an AK-47 automatic rifle and armed himself with 300 rounds of ammunition and 3 grenades to use in fighting the United States, Northern Alliance and other coalition forces.
- On or about 9 November 2001 Hicks spent about two hours on the front line at Konduz "before it collapsed and he was forced to flee".
- Around December 2001, Northern Alliance forces captured Hicks in Baghlan, Afghanistan.
On 1 March 2007, David Hicks was formally charged with material support for terrorism, and referred to trial by the special military commission. The second charge of attempted murder was dismissed by Judge Susan Crawford, who concluded there was "no probable cause" to justify the charge.
In March 2007, the prospect of further delay loomed when Mori was allegedly threatened with court martial for using contemptuous language toward the US executive, a US military discipline offence, by the Chief U.S. military prosecutor, Colonel Morris Davis, but no charges were filed against Mori.
Leaders and legal commentators in both countries criticised the prosecution as the application of ex post facto law
Ex post facto law
An ex post facto law or retroactive law is a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences of actions committed or relationships that existed prior to the enactment of the law...
and deemed the 5-year process to be a violation of Hicks's basic rights. The United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
countered that the charges relating to Hicks were not retrospective but that the Military Commissions Act had codified offences that had been traditionally tried by military commissions and did not establish any new crimes.
Hick's defence lawyer and many international judiciary members claimed that it would have been impossible for a conviction to be found against Hicks. In her book on Hicks, journalist, Leigh Sales, examines more than five years of reporting and dozens of interviews with insiders and looks at the intricacies of Hicks's case, from his capture in Afghanistan, to life in Guantanamo Bay, to the behind-the-scene establishment and workings of the military commissions.
The India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n government launched an investigation into the attacks by Hicks on their armed forces in Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
, during 2000.
Pre-trial agreement and sentence
On 26 March 2007, following negotiations with Hicks's defense lawyers, the convening authority Judge Susan Crawford directly approved the terms of a pre-trial agreement. The agreement stipulated that Hicks enter a guilty plea to a single charge of providing material support for terrorism in return for a guarantee of a much shorter sentence than had been previously sought by the prosecution. The agreement also stipulated that the 5 years already spent by Hicks at Guantanamo Bay could not be subtracted from any sentence handed down, that Hicks must not speak to the media for one year nor take legal action against the United States, and that Hicks withdraw allegations that the U.S. military abused him. Accordingly, in the first ever conviction by the Guantanamo military tribunal and the first conviction in a U.S. war crimes trial since World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, on 31 March, the tribunal handed down a seven year jail sentence for the charge, suspending all but 9 months.
The length of the sentence caused an "outcry" in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and against Defense Department lawyer Susan Crawford, who allegedly bypassed the prosecution in order to meet an agreement with the defense made before the trial. Chief prosecutor Colonel Davis was unaware of the plea deal and surprised at the nine-month sentence, telling The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
"I wasn't considering anything that didn't have two digits," meaning a sentence of at least 10 years.
Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
described the case as "an unwitting symbol of our shameful abandonment of the rule of law".
Political manipulation claims
Australian and US critics speculated that the one-year media ban was a condition requested by the Australian government and granted as a political favour. Senator Bob BrownBob Brown
Robert James Brown is an Australian senator, the inaugural Parliamentary Leader of the Australian Greens and was the first openly gay member of the Parliament of Australia...
of the Australian Greens
Australian Greens
The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, is an Australian green political party.The party was formed in 1992; however, its origins can be traced to the early environmental movement in Australia and the formation of the United Tasmania Group , the first Green party in the world, which...
said, "America's guarantee of free speech under its constitution would have rendered such a gag illegal in the U.S." The Law Council of Australia
Law Council of Australia
The Law Council of Australia is an association of law societies and bar associations from the States and territories of Australia, and the peak body representing the legal profession in Australia. The Council was formed in 1933 to unite the various state legal associations, in order to represent...
reported that the trial was "a contrived affair played out for the benefit of the media and the public", "designed to lay a veneer of due process over a political and pragmatic bargain", serving to corrode the rule of law. They referred to government support for the military tribunal process as shameful. In an interview, the prominent human rights lawyer and UN war crimes judge Geoffrey Robertson
Geoffrey Robertson
Geoffrey Ronald Robertson QC is an Australian-born human rights lawyer, academic, author and broadcaster. He holds dual Australian and British citizenship....
QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
said that the pre-trial agreement "was obviously an expedient at the request of an Australian Government that needed to shore up votes". He went on to note that 'no one looks on [the agreement] as a proper judicial procedure at all.';
The Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
chief prosecutor
Prosecutor
The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the civil law inquisitorial system...
Colonel Morris Davis
Morris Davis
Colonel Morris D. Davis is a United States Air Force officer and lawyer, was appointed to serve as the third Chief Prosecutor in the Guantanamo military commissions....
, who had resigned from the US defence force citing dissatisfaction with the Guantanamo military commission process, alleged that the process had become highly politicised and that he had felt "pressured to do something less than full, fair and open". Davis later elaborated, saying that the Hicks trial was flawed and appeared rushed for the political benefit of the Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
government in Australia. Davis said of his former superiors that "there is no question they wanted me to stage show trials that have nothing to do with the centuries-old tradition of military justice in America". On 28 April 2008, while testifying at a pre-trial hearing at Guantanamo for Salim Hamdan, Colonel Davis said that he had "inherited" the Hicks case but did not consider it serious enough to warrant prosecution.
In November 2007, allegations from an anonymous U.S. military officer, that a high-level political agreement had occurred in the Hicks case, were reported. The officer said that "one of our staffers was present when Vice-President Cheney interfered directly to get Hicks's plea bargain deal. He did it apparently, as part of a deal cut with Howard". Australian Prime Minister John Howard denied any involvement in Hicks's plea bargain.
The Australian government
Government of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a federal constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary democracy. The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 as a result of an agreement among six self-governing British colonies, which became the six states...
denied that the media ban had anything to do with itself or the nearing 2007 Australian federal election, with Prime Minister Howard saying "We did not impose the sentence, the sentence was imposed by the military commission and the plea bargain was worked out between the military prosecution and Mr Hicks's lawyers, and the suggestion ... that it's got something to do with the Australian election is absurd." Brigadier-General Thomas Hemingway, the legal adviser to the military tribunal convening authority, has since claimed the gag order as his idea. Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock stated that Australian law would not prohibit Hicks from speaking to media, although Hicks would be prevented from selling his story.
Repatriation, release and more recent developments
On 20 May 2007 Hicks arrived at RAAF Base EdinburghRAAF Base Edinburgh
RAAF Base Edinburgh is located in Edinburgh, 25km north of the centre of Adelaide.It is primarily home to No 92 Wing's AP-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft that conduct surveillance operations throughout Australia's airspace....
in Adelaide, South Australia on a chartered flight reported to have cost the Australian government up to A$500,000. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock asserted that this arrangement was the consequence of US restrictions on the transit of Hicks through US airspace or territory preventing the use of less expensive commercial flights. Hicks was taken to Adelaide's Yatala Labour Prison
Yatala Labour Prison
Yatala Labour Prison is a low- to high-security men's prison in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. It was built in 1854 to enable prisoners to work at the creek, quarrying rock for roads and construction...
where he was kept in solitary confinement
Solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...
in the state's highest-security ward, G Division.
Hicks was released on 29 December 2007 and placed under a control order
Control order
A control order is an order made by the Home Secretary of the United Kingdom to restrict an individual's liberty for the purpose of "protecting members of the public from a risk of terrorism". Its definition and power were provided by Parliament in the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005...
obtained by the AFP earlier that month. The order required Hicks to not leave Australia, to report to a police station three times a week, and to use only an AFP-approved mobile phone SIM card. On 19 February 2008 he was given special dispensation by federal magistrate Warren Donald to leave South Australia. On 20 February 2008, Hicks moved to Abbotsford, New South Wales
Abbotsford, New South Wales
Abbotsford is a suburb in the Inner West region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Abbotsford is located 10 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Canada Bay...
. A curfew between 1:00am and 5:00am was imposed. Hicks' control order expired in December 2008 and the AFP did not renew it.
Hicks married Aloysia Hicks, a human rights activist who studied at the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Michael Mori
Michael Mori
Michael Dante Mori is a lieutenant colonel in the United States Marine Corps. Mori was the military lawyer for Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks.-History:...
, one of his former military attorneys, attended the ceremony. It was also reported that Dick Smith secured employment for Hicks in a Sydney landscape gardening business.
During 2010 there were calls for Hicks to commence action to clear his name of the charges. In May 2011 his father, wife and supporters, including former politician and justice
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
John Dowd
John Dowd (politician)
John Robert Arthur Dowd AO QC , a former Australian politician and jurist, is the Chancellor of Southern Cross University and the President of ActionAid Australia, an international aid organisation.-Early years and background:...
, former Human Rights Commissioner Elizabeth Evatt
Elizabeth Evatt
Elizabeth Andreas Evatt, AC , an emminent Australian reformist lawyer and jurist who sat on numerous national and international tribunals and commissions, was the first Chief Judge of the Family Court of Australia, the first female judge of an Australian federal court, and the first Australian to...
, human rights lawyer Julian Burnside
Julian Burnside
Julian William Kennedy Burnside AO QC is an Australian barrister, human rights and refugee advocate, and author. He is known for his staunch opposition to the mandatory detention of asylum seekers, and has provided legal counsel in a wide array of high-profile cases...
, along with others started a campaign to clear Hicks' name and to push for an inquiry into his alleged mistreatment in Guantanamo.
Their campaign launch featured Brandon Neely
Brandon Neely
Brandon Neely is a former Army guard at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, in Cuba.Neely is notable for agreeing to be interviewed by the Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas at the University of California, at Davis....
, a former US soldier who guarded Hicks in Guantanamo.
Autobiography
On 16 October 2010, Random House AustraliaRandom House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
published an autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
of Hicks, entitled Guantanamo: My Journey
Guantanamo: My Journey
Guantanamo: My Journey is the autobiography of David Hicks, an Australian who was held in the U.S.'s Guantanamo Bay detention camp for years before eventually pleading guilty to the charge of "material support to terrorism" in a military commission trial...
. Hicks said: “This is the first time I have had the opportunity to tell my story publicly. I hope readers find the book is not only a story of injustice, but also one of hope.” Early reviews of the book were relatively praising of its literary merit.
Australia's proceeds of crime law
Australian anti-terrorism legislation, 2004
Three anti-terrorism bills were enacted in the Australian Parliament in 2004 by a Coalition government with the Labor opposition's support. These were the Anti-terrorism bill, 2004, the Anti-terrorism bill , 2004 and the Anti-terrorism bill , 2004.-Anti-terrorism bill, 2004:The Attorney-General,...
prevents convicted criminals profiting from describing their crimes. At the time of publication Nikki Christer, a spokesperson for Random House, refused to comment whether Hicks was being paid for the book or whether the publisher or the author are at risk of falling foul of federal proceeds of crime laws. Christer said that Random House's financial arrangements with its authors were confidential. ABC News
ABC News (Australia)
ABC News is a national news service produced by the News and Current Affairs division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation - the division is responsible for all newsgathering and production of news output for ABC television, radio and online services...
quoted George Williams, a legal expert from the University of New South Wales
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
who said "You can't proceed unless you actually know that Hicks is profiting. Unless that can be shown then there's no basis to make an order against him." ABC News noted that his conviction might be overturned, in which case he would be free to receive royalties. By July 2011, Australia's Director of Public Prosecutions announced that legal proceedings against Hicks had commenced in the Supreme Court of New South Wales
Supreme Court of New South Wales
The Supreme Court of New South Wales is the highest state court of the Australian State of New South Wales...
, under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. Legal experts believe the prosecutions case will fail. In 2004, federal proceeds of crime laws were amended to include offenses covered by the U.S. military commission in order to prevent Hicks from profiting. As the military commission that convicted Hicks was found to be invalid, in 2011 the amendment was repealed and the existing federal proceeds of crime legislation no longer applies although the DPP believes the federal law is still broad enough to cover Hicks. South Australia still has laws preventing Hicks from profiting but these may not apply in regard to a trial that did not satisfy the principles of natural justice and an attempt to apply them to Hicks could, according to Williams, end up in the High Court as a major constitutional challenge.
Following the publication of his autobiography, Hicks received a standing ovation from an audience of 900 people at his first public appearance at the Sydney Writers' Festival
Sydney Writers' Festival
The Sydney Writers' Festival is an annual literary festival held in the Australian city of Sydney. The Festival's artistic director is Chip Rolley.-History:...
in May 2011.
See also
- Islamic terrorism
- List of converts to Islam
- Terrorism in AustraliaTerrorism in AustraliaAustralia has known acts of modern terrorism since the 1960s, while the federal parliament, since the 1970s, has enacted legislation seeking to specifically target terrorism...
- TreasonTreasonIn law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
- John Walker LindhJohn Walker LindhJohn Phillip Walker Lindh is a United States citizen who was captured as an enemy combatant during the United States' 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. He is now serving a 20-year prison sentence in connection with his participation in Afghanistan's Taliban army...
Media
- The Trials of David Hicks (multimedia), The AgeThe AgeThe Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
(Fairfax Media). Credits to Jane Holroyd, Matthew Absalom-Wong, Andrew Webster, Simon Johnanson. - The President Versus David Hicks (2004). A documentary about the "Australian Taliban", David Hicks. The film follows the struggles of David's father. Produced by SBS TVSBS TVSBS One is a national public television channel in Australia. Launched on 24 October 1980, it is the responsibility of SBS's television division, and is available nationally...
. Diirected by Curtis Levy and Bentley Dean. Written by Luke Thomas Crowe. 52 minutes. - David Hicks: his first public address since the publication of his memoir, interview with Donna Mulhearn (audio), Radio National goes to the 2011Radio NationalABC Radio National is an Australia-wide non-commercial radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.Radio National broadcasts national programming in areas that include news and current affairs, the arts, social issues, science, drama and comedy...
Sydney Writers' FestivalSydney Writers' FestivalThe Sydney Writers' Festival is an annual literary festival held in the Australian city of Sydney. The Festival's artistic director is Chip Rolley.-History:...
(Australian Broadcasting Corporation) (2011). - Former Guantanamo detainee David Hicks speaks with the World Socialist Web Site By Richard Phillips (22 October 2011).